4.5/5 ★ – LukeNobody's review of Undertale.

Beaten on the 1st of January, 2021. Wow, what a crazy, mind boggling game. I got this as gift from a friend way back in 2016, he told me I would appreciate it so he just randomly gifted it to me on Steam. I never touched it til now, 2021, kind of a dick move. Never really knew why either. It just went besides my stockpile of my "need to beat one day" games on Steam. So I figured I would do it today, finish the whole thing in one session. And I did it. In 7 and a half hours. But the thing is, I kinda had an spoiler for years now, since all my friends played it and wouldn't stop talking about it. Which is also probably why it took me so long to play. If you have ever played, you probably know which one I got, I would guess it's the most common thing to be spoiled about it. Even so, with all this backstory. This game blew my mind and my expectations. It was truly a weird, meta, dumb-funny hero journey. I had chills by the end, even if I kinda knew what was coming, there were other things I had no clue would happen the way they did. Now let's talk about the actual game. It's an old-school RPG dungeon crawler type of game mixed with a puzzle platformer. It has turn based combat, which is something I kinda of hate honestly. BUT, the twist here is that for each attack to register you gotta beat a minigame. And THAT'S IT. Honestly, that simple idea MAKES the gameplay. I never got tired of playing. Story-wise it's charming, funny and very heartfelt at times. The characters are goofy and fun, the dialogue is stupid and clever. There's a bunch of intentional contradictions and dichotomies going on, it's great. The plot itself is simple, but the way it's told is very fun and by the end, very emotional. The main character is you, kinda like Link was avoid of personality too in the early Zeldas. But it works, honestly. Toby Fox absolutely KILLS it with the soundtrack, which is clearly going to be a timeless classic. The visuals are kinda ugly at times, pretty at others but mostly they get the job done. And there were also some pretty bold and weird creative choices on those too. There were things I didn't like, such as the endless unnecessary travels, be it to get supplies or to empty your inventory before a big battle. But I can't say I have EVER played a game like this. It's just so CREATIVE, a mix of a bunch of a different influences and ideas mashed into a weird but functional package. Not a single line of dialogue or ambient feels like a waste of time. It's clearly a single person's vision and dream come true, and that's something that I will always appreciate. It fills me with determination.